I recently heard from friends visiting from Charlotte, N.C., and the first thing I asked them was how was the drive, which is 625 miles.

They replied the trip was fine until they arrived at the Outerbridge Crossing and had to wait in line to pay $8.

I then asked why they didn’t have E-ZPass and their reply was that they pay no tolls down there. The only other toll they paid on their trip was $1 to cross the Delaware River.

My point is that I consider it robbery to charge $8 to cross a bridge and now it is going to be $12.

The crime has now been upgraded to rape.

All this to pay for the grand plans of the Port Authority, which includes a $1.5-billion dollar train staion that serves 30,000 people a day.

We Staten Islanders are held hostage by these excessive tolls that benefit the surrounding metropolitan area.

Perhaps it is time to initiate a class-action suit against the Port Authority, which has, over time, skirted its original purpose to overssee the Port of New York and New Jersey and morphed into real estate. They did a great job with the ports, by the way!